Touristing Continues

Still waking up early. But I don't mind getting an early start on the day. In the morning ww went back to the Royal Museum for the Titanic exhibition. There were not so many people in line as the day before and we soon got in. At the exhibit entrance they gave us tickets with the name of an original passenger and a small narrative of that person's personal history and reason for travelling on the ship. At the exit there was a big board where we could look up the names to see if we were survivers. Alice was the only one of us that survived. It's a smart idea that entices the visitor's compassion, and it humanizes this otherwise rather technical shipwreck. There were some other exhibits too. One about British Columbia history and one about the "First People" as the Indians are called here. The latter was interesting, I thought. There was a big miniature village display reconstructed after photographs taken in the mid 19th century. Totems were lined up in front of every (large) house and made the whole site look something like a huge wooden temple. The weather is still great and we walked along the harbour to China Town and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. It was a fun place where certain tacit routines and rules seemed to govern the eating. Waiters with trolleys were cirling the room offering various small dishes, pretty much like Spanish Tapas or Gree Mezes. Food was great but the kids only dared to eat rice. After lunch I walked over to Vancouver Island Brewery, a local microbrewery, while the Anna and the kids walked back to check out the tourist double deckers/horse carriages. But it was very expensive and instead they went to some underwater garden on a ship in the inner harbour which turned out to be another tourist trap. Why do kids love that kind of stuff? At the brewery I met the Plant Operations Manager and got to taste this year's Hermannator Icebock, their most famous beer. It's their Christmas beer and it is not finished until November. Before that it has to be iced as well. I continued down the road and through more industrial areas to pick up our rental car for the trip to Tofino. The car is a Toyota Highlander which is a kind of SUV I guess. In the evening we went for a drive along the Marine Drive and up to Oak Bay to watch the seals. But they were not around.